HCM City to host fruit festival next month

HCM CITY — HCM City will host its annual Southern Fruit Festival at Suối Tiên Tourist Park in District 9 from June 1-9.

The festival is organised by the city’s Tourism Department and the park to honour the agricultural values of Việt Nam and the southern region.

The event will feature more than 150 kinds of fruit at below-market prices with discounts of 20-40 per cent, and display fruits that satisfy VietGap and Global Gap standards, and a giant and rare fruit collection.

It will also present different kinds of fruit-based drinks and food by bartenders and chefs from the city’s restaurants and hotels.

The annual festival is a popular cultural tourism event to promote Vietnamese fruits. However, it also offers a chance to support farmers in the Cửu Long (Mekong) Delta affected by the prolonged drought and saline intrusion.

The organisers plan to launch a programme called “Week of Vietnamese Fruits” at hotels, trade centres, supermarkets, traditional markets and grocery shops in the city from June 1-7 to show consumers how to identify safe fruit.